No opening weekend for Mads Pedersen, return to competition at Paris-Nice: "It is the approach we also had at the time with Fabian Cancellara"

Lidl-Trek are a team that are very experienced and strong in the classics. In the past they have coached Fabian Cancellara into extreme success in the cobbled classics and they are looking to implement the same approach with Mads Pedersen.

The Dane has recently won both Etoile de Bessèges and Tour de la Provence, “but it is really not the case that Mads is already in top form" team DS Kim Andersen told Het Nieuwsblad. "We have raced in many different places in recent weeks. The top riders were very spread out. Winning is of course never easy, but it is certainly not the case that Mads is suddenly far ahead of schedule or something. Everyone now says: 'He has already won six times, he has to ride the opening weekend.' No, we are sticking to our plan."

The plan is to skip the opening weekend, with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne being two races very well fit for the Dane. As his main goals lie Milano-Sanremo, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix later in the spring. Judging by last year's incredibly consistent and strong season, it is very possible that Pedersen may lead the American team to a triumph in one of them. “Mads has currently been on a training camp in Mallorca for ten days. He will stay there until Paris-Nice," Andersen tells.

"It is the approach we also had at the time with Fabian Cancellara. Fabian rode the Opening Weekend a few times in very bad weather conditions, with the risk of getting sick. Hence the decision not to ride anymore. That worked well for Fabian and it now works well for Mads. We just know that it is very difficult to be at the same level from the Omloop to Paris-Roubaix," he concluded.